{"id":187872,"date":"2026-02-21T20:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/187872\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T20:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:25:13","slug":"oc-man-charged-with-murder-in-wifes-stabbing-death-over-valentines-day-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/187872\/","title":{"rendered":"OC man charged with murder in wife\u2019s stabbing death over Valentine\u2019s Day weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. &#8211; A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/tag\/us\/ca\/orange-county\/san-juan-capistrano\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">San Juan Capistrano <\/a>man faces murder charges after his estranged wife was stabbed to death over Valentine\u2019s Day weekend. Officials said the suspect believed she had been unfaithful.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTTV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">On Saturday, Feb. 14, at about 6:30 a.m., the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Department received a call from a woman who said her brother-in-law told her he had killed his wife with a knife at their San Juan Capistrano home.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">When deputies arrived at the home, they found 62-year-old Stephen Anthony Demora walking outside with blood on his face and body. Inside the garage, they found 59-year-old Debora Demora lying in a pool of blood.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The couple had been married for 30 years, but investigators said they had been estranged for the past 10 years while continuing to live together.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Officials said the suspect was taken to a local hospital for self-inflicted injuries.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">He has since been charged with one felony count of murder and one felony enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon, a knife.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTTV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;This is a tragedy on so many levels that a relationship that stretched over so many decades could erupt in such brutality on a day meant to celebrate love,&#8221; Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. &#8220;Violence of any kind against anyone will not be tolerated, and those who engage in violence will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTTV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Demora is being held at the Orange County Jail on $1 million bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned March 26, 2026, at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">He faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life if convicted on all charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: This story was written with information provided by the Orange County District Attorney&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/tag\/us\/ca\/orange-county\/san-juan-capistrano\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Juan Capistrano<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxla.com\/tag\/us\/ca\/orange-county\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orange County<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. &#8211; A San Juan Capistrano man faces murder charges after his estranged wife was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,1184,2042,100,611,6736,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-187872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-crime-publicsafety","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-orange-county","15":"tag-san-juan-capistrano","16":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}